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Roanoke School Board Chairman David Carson recently called out black churches without realizing it.

Carson wrote a compelling commentary in this newspaper last month pointing out how everyone can do more to help improve the city's abysmal graduation rate.

About halfway into his piece, Carson acknowledged the three-year contribution of "diverse places of worship such as Second Presbyterian, Christ Episcopal, Central Church of the Brethren, Beth Israel, First Christian, Greene Memorial, St. Mark's Lutheran and Jesus Is Lord Assembly."

With the exception of Jesus Is Lord, the places that Carson acknowledged for providing a steady flow of volunteers, supplies and weekend snacks to disadvantaged children are predominantly white.

Carson's list inadvertently highlighted a conspicuous absence from Roanoke education I noticed a year ago.

Where are the black churches? Read more »

Hill as the face of American detente?

No doubt about it. Hillary Clinton is brilliant, but Secretary of State? Pulease!  I'm not feeling it. She has traveled the globe. But she's hard as nails and has a lot of public baggage. I suspect few of us would use the words "Hillary" and "diplomatic" in the same sentence. I mean, the woman is like a bull in a china store.

Whether you agreed with Condoleeza Rice's politics, she exuded a cool, calm but authoritative decorum when she represented the U.S. across the globe with the world's leaders. Hillary brings too much drama for such a high-profile role.

I had pegged the senator from New York for the court, the Supreme Court. It's an important, but out-of-the-limelight gig. (And there are no young women to speak of at the court to get Bill in trouble!) But my buddy Kev, a conservative whose opinion I much respect, says no way. He says the court can't afford a politician, and Hill is a straight-up politician.

Kev also says if you put Hill at State, it keeps her out of Obama's way on the domestic front---where she bombed in Bill's first term.

What do you think?

Cal Thomas is right.

But this time he is.

Sorta.

In a word, the syndicated columnist says what has driven the auto industry to its current state are unions. I've been saying that for years. In a column last week in the Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Ingrassia suggested ripping up the existing contracts with the unions. Read more »

In Wednesday's assembly line of young volunteers at the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank, Melissa Downey abruptly halted the activity and called a quick confab with Glenvar High schoolmate Kimmie Martin.

Should Downey toss the 12-roll pack of Scott tissue, which was really an 11-pack, because it had been ripped open? Or was it safe to put in the donation bin to go out to a needy family? Without hesitating, Kimmie made the call.

Because the rolls were exposed, 17-year-old Kimmie figured, they might not be sanitary. Melissa, 14, agreed.

The tissue was tossed.

Across town at Greenvale School, Glenvar junior Taylor Montgomery welcomed his role as the oldest kid in a circle of preschoolers dancing and moving to the "bean bag" song.

By late morning, another crop of Glenvar students had raked enough leaves at the Bradley Free Clinic to fill 43 bags. Afterward, they lounged in a large multipurpose room at the facility.

Don't call today's youth self-absorbed. Read more »

U.S. Army Sgt. Cornelius Charlton is an American hero.

An Army barracks complex in South Korea is named for him, along with a bridge on Interstate 77 in West Virginia, a park in Bronx, N.Y., and a U.S. Navy cargo ship.

He is the recipient of the Purple Heart and the Congressional Medal of Honor, America's highest military award.

Wednesday, 57 years after Charlton led three charges up a hill in Korea and ultimately sacrificed his life for his country, he will get the final tribute due him:

He will be reburied in Arlington National Cemetery. Read more »

Remember the golf commercial a few years back featuring young people of all races and ethnicities? As the camera closed in, they uttered the famous line:

"I am Tiger Woods."

Imagine another similarly styled commercial. It would include cameos from people such as Roanoke schools administrator Asia Jones; the Rev. Adrian Dowell of Shiloh Baptist Church in Salem; Donald Burnette, a laborer who is the American dream; City of Roanoke employee trainer Gwen Ellis; Carilion Vice President Modena Henderson or lawyer Malik Shareef.

The commercial would have them peering into the camera and saying:

"I am the black middle class." Read more »

Oh gimme a break.

Today's lead story is gun owners snapping up every weapon they can find. They're afraid an Obama administration coupled with a Democratic Congress will trounce on their gun rights.

Got news for ya: This time, you're not the center of the universe. The nation is too busy trying to save itself from an imploding economy, collapsing automakers and the laughable state of health coverage.

Let's stay in the political realm but on a far lighter note.

Sasha and Malia Obama have been promised a new puppy when they move in the White House. Animals are not my thing. I'm allergic to pet hair, and it gets pretty ugly when I'm around them i.e. sneezing, puffy, itchy and watery eyes, etc. 

So I turn to you for suggestions of which breed of dog would make a good First Dog for the girls and why? My sister has a beagle, which seems to be  peppy, energetic little dog on the rare occasions I'm around him.

Dr. Stephanie Nagy-Agren's e-mail popped into my mailbox Tuesday afternoon.

It read almost like a physician's shorthand on a prescription.

"Calling HQ until got thru. did it. got to drive voters early this morning."

At 5:47 p.m., Tina Williams kept one eye on the clock at Dyon's Barbershop on Peters Creek Road in Roanoke and one eye on her client's hair. She had exactly one hour and 13 minutes to drive to her precinct and get in line to vote.

Later, as election results suggested Barack Obama was on his way to a historic presidential victory, Del. Onzlee Ware slid an Obama poster across the conference table in his Gainsboro law office and asked the small group of guests to sign it.

The tentacles of the momentous election touched Roanokers in different ways as they eagerly participated in democracy. Tuesday was no ordinary Election Day because this was no ordinary election. Read more »

...President-elect Barack Obama